Spam rate dips to kick of 2007

THERE HAS BEEN a 30 per cent reduction of spam over the last week, reports SoftScan today. There are whispers in the company that the reduction of spam could be due to a major botnet temporarily losing control of its clients.

Another possible cause for the lack of spam could be the recent earthquake in Asia blocking out spamming activity from the region, the SoftScan reckons that this is unlikely since the drop in spam distribution is not instant.

As just about every security company will be saying, more effort will be needed to tackle the spam problem this year if the rising spam trend continues. For example, the lowest spam level in December - a big month for spam - was massively high at 84.95%.

CTO of SoftScan Diego d'Ambra said in a press release that "if spam distribution levels continue to rise at the rate we have seen over the last few months, then I believe that by the end of 2007 governments worldwide will be obliged to enforce international anti-spam laws."

SoftScan also announced the top five virus families for December, phishing being top dog at 69%, followed by tibs at 12.89% netsky at 4.00% stration at 3.05% and bagle at 2.56%. µ